i got an ibanez artcore. Beautiful finish, but it's only in white now, i got mine in Candy apple red (litmd. time offer, etc.) i think the model is AFG75TDG or somthing like that. Pretty good tone plugged in. It's got a pretty fat neck, fatter than my acoustic, but slick as butter.I know its preference, but it feels good in my hand.

The thickness of hollowbodies always made me think "This is a man's guitar." lol.

Only thing is its got like IDC Pups in it which i have never heard of and is made of some kindve maple alternative i think, called cordia.

if it's for your dad you might be able to get a sibling/relative to help out on the money if they aren't already, but either way that is rad of you. i would say a gretsch would be the cheapest/nicest hollowbody for the money, i prefer them to epiphones, but i have not tried an artcore

I thought you wanted a hollowbody, not a semihollow. Gretsch Electromatics are a little nicer than Ibanez ones, but they're a different sound... Gretsches are a little more solid and have Bigsby tailpieces, which are good, but their pickups are much brighter, and in my experience the sustain is worse. If you want a jazz sound, you're actually better off with the Ibanez, especially if you swap out the pups to something a little nicer. But the Gretsch can be great for jazz as well, which is of course mostly still in the amp and the fingers. If you also want to check out semihollows, I highly recommend the Ibanez AS73 (I think). I played one recently and was blown the **** away. It's miles ahead of the full-hollow Ibanez and I'd buy it over any other hollowbody under $1000.